Humankind has long since perished.
But life goes on.
Nature is slowly reclaiming the planet. A fire forces a young red fox named Kip to flee her den for the first time. Now alone and left half-blind, Kip must struggle to find refuge for herself and...
The smell of spraying blood clogged Kip's nose. The gurgles of the male eagle as he choked on his blood sounded like music to the fox. But the furious screeches of the sister as she watched her brother die made the fox's blood turn to ice in her veins. The eagle's last remaining offspring took wing, carrying word of his death to the lord of the territory.
Kip hurried her kits away from the corpse in the street and further into city just as it began to pour.
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No creatures occupied the great gray sky before the trio. A heavy blanket of cottony ash-colored clouds tumbled by, promising more rain in the near future. The foxes stared from a heap of rubble at a rolling, stormy sea. Kip parted her jaws to taste the scent of fish and the tang of salt on the roof of her mouth. The rot of the city was worse here along the coast because of the heavy humid air, but at least any rabid animals were scarcer. The corpses of capsized boats and ships throbbed against the rocky coastline. Buildings here had long ago fallen into the sea and their bits and pieces bobbed and weaved amongst white-crested waves. A low rumble crawled across the sky. It was hard to tell if it was the roll of thunder or the thrum of wreckage striking the shore.
Vin gasped and made her way down the craggy slope. "Neer! Come look at this!"
Her daughter was feeling better, much to Kip's relief. Though Neer still easily overtook his sister as the pair raced to investigate a partially buried whale skeleton by the seashore—the only trace of white in a dark landscape. This time, Kip didn't bother to urge her kits onward. She sat there, watching her cubs play tag around the spires of the gargantuan ribcage of a long-dead titan.
She coughed, hoarse. The scratch on her side burned, leftover from when she fought the eagle's son. It had never quite healed in the day since. Her skin was hot and inflamed around the wound that festered. And a feverish tinge lingered in the corners of her vision. But, for now, her family remained safe.
Eventually, she padded off and scoured an old shipwreck where she caught rats for dinner. She presented them to her playing cubs. Their fur was still plush and sleek, while Kip's bones poked out underneath her pelt. But she was happy to ignore the biting ache in her empty stomach if it meant her young were happy.
She was surprised when Neer dropped a twig at her paws in return.
"Look," he whispered to her. His little tail wagged ever so slightly. "It was drowning. I saved it." He nudged the twig shyly with a forepaw. "There's a chrysalis on it."
Kip sniffed at the twig, finding that, sure enough, a glistening green chrysalis stuck to one end of it. Something stirred sleepily inside the casing.
"It's the eagle's son," Neer explained.
Kip's blood went cold, though her wound still burned hot. "Neer..." she began, though she wasn't even sure of what she was even about to say.
The strange young tod didn't let her finish. Without uttering another word, he picked up the tiny twig in his teeth—minding the chrysalis—and carried it away with him.
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Kip placed a paw on the bridge before them. It was impossible to see the other end of the hulking, creaking thing through the swirling gray mist. What they could see swayed listlessly from side to side. Droplets of water already clung to the tips of their fur.
Vin peered behind her mother's leg to gawk at the lines of cars. Then she swiveled her ears up to the sky. "Is it safe, Mom?"
Neer said nothing, still carrying his twig in his mouth.
Kip sniffed the humid air. The bridge itself should be fine to cross. But they would be exposed beneath the sky—visible to any vengeful raptors.
Kip licked each of her cubs and reassured them. "You will be okay, little ones. Follow me." She led the way, effortfully concealing her pained limp and struggling not to pant. Dizziness made it hard for her to stay on her feet.
The one-eyed fox startled at a sudden squeak beneath her paws. She raised her paw to reveal the old broken doll she'd stepped on. She stared down at the small plastic likeness of some long-gone creature's young. One of its eyes blinked at her. The other was only a gouged-out hole. Kip grimaced and kicked the eerie thing away. The head detached from the body and rolled away, coming to rest against the bridge's expansion joint.
The creaking was the worst along this section of the bridge. The expansion joint, clogged with decades of filth and dirt, could no longer keep both sections of the bridge flush together. The joint just barely tolerated the gales of wind.
Kip swallowed nervously. Something was wrong. Though Kip had no understanding of the bridge's defects, her animal instincts told her to run.
A band of rain rolled across the bridge, carrying with it a particularly powerful whip of wind that nearly knocked the foxes off their feet.
The bridge had valiantly stood against the elements and the test of time, but now it could stand no longer.
Over the roll of thunder, the joint split apart with a deafening crack. Fissures spread across the asphalt beneath Kip's paws. Metal whined as it twisted and tore along the faulty joint. The section of the bridge the foxes stood upon began to crumble into the sea. The cubs were already running for the intact section of the bridge in front of them. They leaped to safety on the other side of the joint.
Behind them, Kip was so slow.
"Mom!" Vin cried.
Kip was so close. Just a few more steps...
Neer dropped his twig and wailed, "Mom!"
The vixen leaped into the air just as the ground gave way beneath her.
Her paws caught the other end, claws scratching for purchase. She felt the sting of small needle-sharp teeth as her cubs bit into her scruff and hauled her up onto the bridge with them.
Kip collapsed on her side and heaved from exertion. The sea swallowed the rubble below them. Their connection to their old home, gone. Severed. The city they'd left behind was obscured by a veil of mist.
Vin scratched an ear with her hind paw. "That was scary," she said. "Can we keep going now?"
Kip breathed a laugh and pressed her nose into her daughter's fur. All three foxes turned away from the wreckage, ready to see what lay on the other side of the bridge.
Neer suddenly let out a surprised, "Oh!" and padded back to the broken edge of the bridge.
Kip watched in exhausted silence, her steady breath stirring the mist, as her son retrieved his forgotten twig and skipped to rejoin his waiting mother and sister.
Then, as if in slow motion, two pairs of reaching black talons materialized from the fog behind Neer. Spreading wings that cut through the fog like knives followed. Then a hooked beak stabbed through the gray void, between two blazing black eyes.
Kip screamed in horror as the eagle, a ruthless monster and an avenging mother, snatched Neer in her claws and carried him away into the clouds...taking a son for a son.
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